:: adgruntie :: Paid placement in magazines

+ Adage has an interesting article on product placements in magazines.

Deborah Wahl Meyer, Lexus division’s vice president of marketing, won’t say which publications might sign such deals.

“In TV, product placement has really stepped up,” she said. “That’s paid for and accepted by the public. It has become pretty widespread. There’s a lot of opportunity to do that in the print world, too.”

Accepted by the public to a degree maybe. I think that's probably not extremely accurate. The public doesn't always know when it's seeing paid placements on TV.

Even more of a danger still, is the old old arguement about the integrity of magazines (and newspapers) with hidden paid placements mixed in with editorial and articles.

“It's the idea of devaluing the legitimacy of the journalism you’re doing,” Jane's auto columnist Annemarie Conte said. “If we start taking product placement for one part of the magazine, we have to take it for all of it. I want readers to know my content hasn’t been dictated by advertising.”

The American Society of Magazine Editors opposes product placement in magazines, said Marlene Kahan, ASME's executive director. She declined further comment, noting that the organization is revising its guidelines and will publish additional rules on product placement this year.

Its current guidelines spell out how magazines should differentiate advertising from editorial. It recommends that ads should not be placed next to related articles in a manner that implies editorial endorsement of the advertised product. That includes advertising that features the same celebrity or product image as the cover image.

The organization also suggests that an advertiser’s name or logo not be used on any editorial pages in a way that suggests sponsorship of those pages.

There needs to be a clear and obvious notation of some sort to the readers that what they are reading or looking at is in fact paid for. Deception of the consumer will only result in backlash for the publication and the advertisers in the long run.